


Glitch; Herald of Kings Row.

by Cynical_Dunedain



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Covert Operation, Gen, Omnic Rights (Overwatch), Overwatch - Freeform, Overwatch Uprising, Set pre-Uprising, Who is Mina?, kings row
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29117583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynical_Dunedain/pseuds/Cynical_Dunedain
Summary: What was Jesse McCree doing in Kings Row during the Null Sector uprising? This story offers a small insight into what had transpired leading up to the Overwatch team braking sanctions. A mysterious figure answers some questions but may also raise new ones.
Relationships: Jesse McCree/Glitch- platonic





	Glitch; Herald of Kings Row.

Glitch always appreciated Britain's temperate climate; it was a vast improvement on the inhumane heat of the mines in which he grew up. That said, it really didn’t help his mood, to be stood in the rain for hours. 

The past two days had been spent lurking at multiple prearranged spots during specific hours. Glitch had come to hour 8 of waiting across the street from “The Bell”. 

“Maybe we should just get a bag o’ chips and fuck off home? Whatchya think?” 

Blip's display lit up at the prospect of getting out of this downpour. Unfortunately, the refurbed det’ units hopes were dashed. It was at that moment that Glitch spotted McCree sauntering towards the chippy. He moved to engage, “Feeling like real spy work now eh B?” ... 

“The Duster went out of style decades ago ol...” before he could affect his cleaver quip, the cowboy had Glitch in an armbar with a gun to his spine while shoving him down an alley in silence. 

“Who are you? How did you find me?”, it really didn’t seem like McCree was in the mood to joke. 

A concussion blast that sent both humans flying through the air, upon landing McCree’s face was aghast to find hard light restraints on his ankles and wrists.

“Did you really think I'd come alone?” Glitch quipped. Pulling the cocky cowboy clean off his feet with ease, Glitch spotted McCree eyeing the exo-skeleton running down his arms with a combined look of fear and curiosity. As much as Glitch resented his robotic limbs, they made quite the first impression. 

“You ok ol’ man? Sorry for the abrupt flight, B doesn’t respond well to people abducting her pals” Glitch flippantly apologized. Blip, who currently looked like the bones of an old detonator unit buzzed by his head with what could only be described as a deep throated chortle. 

“What the hell is going on here? How did you get the drop on me?” unamused, Jesse tried in vain to struggle out of his restraints. 

Glitch knew that his home-crafted cuffs would not hold the famed Blackwatch agent for long, so, he got to the point; “It's not important how, more why I found you, I need your help”. 

“The world has gone to shit, everyone needs my help, what makes you special?! Now, your drop said you knew something about Mina” Jesse grunted, his wrists beginning to chafe. 

“Ok, I guess by the look on your face, I shouldn’t tell you I don’t really know where she is....” Glitch bent and dusted the refuse Jesse had landed in off his hat and popped it on his head with a condescending pat. 

“I mightn’t know where this Mina woman is, but I do know where she’s going” Glitch teased as he nimbly hopped up to sit on the one dim light looming over the alley. “Besides, we’ve time for that, as for the why I mentioned earlier. I’ve been hearing rumbles of Null Sector planning to make moves in London, and not the usual Underground gossip, this is something big”. 

“And you didn’t report this intel the usual way why?” Glitch sensed the shift in tone from Jesse, but he couldn’t tell if it was genuine interest or the if the rogue was just buying time. 

“Yeah, and Morrison would leap to action on the word of some suspected omnic sympathizer”, “from what I can tell, that boyscout wouldn’t flout the suspension you guys are under anyway” Glitch had had more than a few encounters with local law enforcement, none had ended well, but such is life on the fringes of society. 

“That's why I needed to get you here in person, I couldn’t risk transmitting this”, Glitch gestured with a prosthetic hand and Blip began to replay an encoded comms packet. McCree was stunned at what he heard; an indistinct voice was confirming ‘units’ advancing on Britain. But even the seasoned merc was haunted by what he heard next, said units were to be a diversion to draw out a high value target. 

“Why not go to Helix with this, did you have to drag my ass into this trash fire?” the intel had, apparently, piqued Jesse’s curiosity, he was no longer resisting his bindings. 

“Those fuckers have less interest in listening to a rock savage bastard like me”. 

“I’m just one of millions of orphans that Vishkar said could be stuffed with handy Bio-mods to work mines and the like in markets too poor to afford full omnics” a sole tear trailed down Glitch's cheek, ‘hopefully Jesse didn’t notice’ he thought. 

“Me and many others like me were sold by our impoverished home nations, to Vishkar” Glitch gathered his resolve and pushed through his story, sparing the darker details. “In exchange they were given “end products” like me, equipped with modifications, making us ideal for work in state industries”. As he deftly flipped down from the light pole, Glitch waved his hand again. Instantly, the cuffs that ensnared Jesse flashed and retreated into his palms. “Recently, things have been changing in my world, all I’m trying to do is ease my conscience”. 

"I know I haven’t done much to earn you trust, but I know that Mina is due to be transferred, I’m close to finding out when...”. Whether it was Jesse’s sense of duty or his impassioned plea, Glitch couldn’t tell, but he was convinced. “Alright, I’ll take what you’ve told me and report in, see if I can’t get something movin’, but next time I see you, I want more”. 

“Thank you”, before McCree could look up from soothing his wrists, Glitch retreated. Silently, down to the cover of a disused maintenance tunnel. 

Blip chirped happily, having only been rebuilt a month ago, Glitch still wasn’t sure what it was that drove Blips beeps and boops. “Maybe we’ll open you up when we get home B, huh?”, Glitch stopped hurrying through the sub-terranean maze when he noticed she was lagging, “I know it’s boring, but, you’re still only 40% synced to my processors, I need to understand you better”. 

The journey back to the Meridian should have only taken a few minutes, but just by his junkie, rough spec’ appearance people would assume he was aligned with local onmic militants. 

The Helix beat cops would often yell omnic slurs while chasing Glitch through the streets. He had begun to surmise that it could be to do with the fact he kept stealing similar materials to the tin heads, but that, other than is exo-mods, was the only parallel. 

After an hour-long, meandering trudge through maintenance and sewer tunnels, Glitch made it home to his nook in the Meridian southern gable peak. 

“Good work tonight, Blip, we’re definitely coming to an understanding, how about you dock for the night and we’ll start work on a better blend of our coding. In the morning, ok? I could do with a rest too; my sensors are running overtime to keep up with you”. Blip nestled into her dock and went into hibernation for the night. 

Glitch, tired from a very long twenty-four hours, pulled his sleeveless hoodie over his head and ran his hand through the thick crop of dirt-brown hair that formed his short mohawk, now, standing proud on the top of Glitch’s pale head. He climbed out a window, high above the surrounding, cobble stone streets of kings Row, to sit and reflect. 

A low hum and a hiss startled nearby crows into flight, Glitch chuckled. It amused him to think that just the venting of the outlets of his Vishkar brand U.O.C (Universal Operations Column) which ran down the centre of his back, could still disturb the local birds. Then again, what would he know?! Glitch had spent the better part of twenty years in mine-shafts. 

The past month since escaping the mines, a home he did not care to remember, had shown Glitch that the world had much more to it than he could have imagined. Tonight, he was truly worried. Had he just gotten himself involved in the most dangerous game in a world he had only begun to scratch the surface of? 


End file.
